Bloomberg News: Administration's Studies of New Payment Systems Employ Faulty Data Analysis

The government's release of first-year cost-savings results for its accountable care organization (ACO) project and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center delivery system reform pilot projects have drawn criticism from both the New York Times and the Washington Post, which published articles pointing out the problems with drawing conclusions from studies that are not true randomized controlled trials. In short, correlation is not causation, and the early results, while interesting, are not the same as proof that ACOs and new reimbursement methods like bundled payments actually deliver better care more cheaply. In a commentary, Bloomberg News summarized the controversy.